Indonesia: Adapting the national influenza pandemic preparedness plan for COVID-19 response
When COVID-19 hit Indonesia, the country was quick to repurpose its pandemic influenza preparedness plan, even before the WHO COVID-19 Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan was available. With WHO’s support, Indonesia was one of the first countries globally to conduct an intra[1]action review in August 2020. This process brought together 138 multisectoral stakeholders and provided lessons learned and actionable recommendations on how to enhance the health system’s capacities to respond to the pandemic and how to revise the country’s COVID-19 response plan. These included for instance recommendations to revise the pandemic influenza contingency plan, or for provinces to update their pandemic contingency plans and conduct multi-sectoral tabletop exercises. To ensure the best implementation of recommendations from the intra-action review, Indonesia conducted quarterly follow[1]up meetings to monitor progress. The country then took its learning full circle by applying lessons learned from COVID-19 to update its pandemic influenza preparedness plan and incorporate a broader respiratory pathogen preparedness approach, in line with WHO guidance.
Photo credit: Indonesia Ministry of Health
YouTube link: https://youtu.be/mWBcLeNX8ck
